INTEGRATING FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF GEOLOGICAL INFORMATION IN THE SEARCH FOR NEW MINES, REAL DE MINAS DE ZACUALPAN DISTRICT, CENTRAL MEXICO

The Real de Minas de Zacualpan District, located 100 km southwest of Mexico City is centered within an area of the oldest known mining activity in North America, pre-dating the arrival of Cortez in 1519.

During the past seven years IMPACT Silver Corp. has been engaged in an aggressive exploration program that has included the compilation of roughly 500 years of mining activity into a GIS database. Using the computer program ArcGIS 10.1, geological mapping and rock samples (>31,000) from some 1,900 veins have been inputted. As well over 3,600 old mine and exploration workings have been located, and most have been geologically mapped and sampled. Other layers of information include airborne geophysical surveys, ground geophysics (magnetometer, VLF-EM, gravity, and induced polarization), topography, LIDAR, and over 3,500 diamond drill holes.

In terms of exploration the most powerful exploration methodology has been the digitization of “vein segments” for this 423 km²mining district. Combining geological information from surface, plus underground mapping and drill hole information that has been projected to surface, segments of each of the veins are digitized onto a surface map. To date over five thousand “vein segments” have been digitized, each carrying 165 fields of data concerning the width, dip, geochemical, textural, and metadata information which now reside within one layer of this ArcGIS database, which in turn contains over half a million cells of information. These “vein segments” are then connected to other “vein segments” for the same vein and symbolized in ArcGIS as to the assay values and width. In this manner the characteristics for any vein are readily visible on this one derivative map as to value of the commodities (represented by the geochemical data) as well as the width, length, dip and shape of a particular vein, and the relationship this vein bears to neighboring veins, and the Zacualpan District as a whole.

This map is then used to prioritize areas of exploration potential for drilling, and the specific targeting of exploration drill holes. Utilizing the data handling and analysis methods developed by IMPACT Silver Corp. has resulted in a threefold increase in the success rate for IMPACT’s exploration drilling, which in turn has led to the discovery and commissioning of five mines within the past seven years.